Still Cooking Smarter

I’m on my 5th week using Cook Smarts and can’t say enough good things about the site and service. While my relationship with the company began as a sponsored post to review the meal planning service + website, I have grown to be a regular user and customer. I bought a year subscription and have been using it on my own. Jess invited me to share another week behind the scenes with you in the form of a sponsored post, so I’m putting the spotlight back on why I think Cook Smarts is a great asset to your kitchen. Here are 5 reasons why this service has been life changing for our family:

1. Prep Sundays

VIDEOS

For the first time in my life I have a real need to do a Sunday prep day. After a big haul to the grocery store, Matt and spend only about 30-45 minutes chopping all of the veggies for the week. This has saved SOOO much time on the weeknights!! I just love dirtying up everything once and washing it all in bulk. Matt is awesome at chopping veggies, and I work on the pestos/sauces and coordinating all the prep bowls. What makes Cook Smarts so cool is that there is a whole plan for a Sunday prep day that you can opt into if you want. So everything is detailed out for us. It’s so very helpful and saves time.

2. New Recipes + Flavors

You know how meals made by other people always taste better? This is that effect! Because someone else is telling me the what, when and how to cook, I’m finding that everything tastes better than if I had made it on my own. Jess’s style includes a lot of fresh herbs and lemon/lime juice, and they add that extra layer of flavor that enhances everything in the recipe. Boy did we need some shaking up in the kitchen!

Here were our dinners from last week. This was my first Pot Pie and it turned out incredible!!! I can’t wait to make it again when my parents visit this weekend. Instead of a store-bought crust Matt made his standard pie crust and it was smashing.

3. Learning New Things

In addition to trying new recipes, I’ve learned a thing or two about cooking too. Number one – fresh herbs and lemon are totally worth it. But also there are technique videos. I loved watching the sweet potato fry video to compare methods, and this sweet kale video is great for anyone who has never cooked with one of my favorite veggies:

4. Easy Lunches

This is another life changer: I love having all the leftovers for lunch! I was getting to the point where I just didn’t want my usual salads with eggs/burgers on top and was craving hot foods. Enter our leftovers! Since the Cook Smarts recipes are for 4 servings, we always have a little extra (even if we accidentally eat 3 servings for dinner!) It’s been so nice to heat + eat.

5. Mazen Meals

And finally…many of the meals have been surprisingly Mazen friendly! I always though babies like bland foods – mac and cheese, PB&J, chicken fingers. But Mazen seems to like adult food most. The more gourmet the better. I couldn’t get him to touch some plain chickpeas the other day, but the next day he gobbled down a half cup of them in tomato sauce leftover from our Monday Cook Smarts dinner. The next day he shocked me by eating red curry cabbage and carrots. We have a little foodie on our hands, and he has enjoyed so many of the meals both the night of if we’re able to eat together and the next day for lunch.

A Discount For You!

If you’ve been wanting to sign up for Cook Smarts but just haven’t bitten the bullet, here’s another steal for you: a year of meal plans, recipes, prep instructions and cook smarts, all for $50. (That’s $22 the regular cost for a year, which I still think is a great deal!) The code is KERF2014 and expires in 2 weeks, on February 8.

Ready to get cookin’?

Enter below to win a $100 gift card to Whole Foods for some ingredients to get you cooking! You can enter one of three ways (or all three for more entries!): Tweet (1 entry), by email (1 entry) or by signing up for a free Cook Smarts account and leaving a comment on this post with the meal you’d most like to make (worth 5 entries!). Check out their Archives for all the possibilities! Giveaway will run through the weekend and end at midnight on Sunday.

I use Cook Smars, and we easily spend under $100 a week on the meals. It was a bit pricier in the beginning as I amped up my pantry with things I didn’t have, like various curries, but since then, the cost has been very reasonable.

I just signed up and the Butternut Squash Curry soup sounds amazing!
I have been reading your posts about Cook Smarts and keep debating if I should sign up, I really love the “behind the scene” post and this helped make my decision!

I just wanted to say, I discovered Cook Smarts through your first sponsored post and immediately purchased a three month subscription when they were offering a Black Friday deal. My husband and I are in LOVE with the meals, and like Mazen, our 14 month old foodie son loves them too! This follow up post and the yearly subscription discount you and Jess are offering couldn’t have come at a better time….thank you for introducing our family to Cook Smarts!!!

it doesn’t provide a cost, but you could easily swap out a vegetarian dish for less money (I’m doing this next week, actually –> beans for beef) or omit certain expensive ingredients like a cheese garnish

Thanks for the opportunity and thanks for introducing me to Cook Smarts! The stovetop mac ‘n cheese and panko-breaded chicken “nuggets” sounds like a delicious, healthy rendition on a childhood classic!

You’ve definitely sold me on Cook Smarts, Kath! As a grad student on a budget, with a crazy schedule, I think this meal plan/ prep style will really work for me, too. I’m excited to try the recipe for butternut squash risotto.

Would it be very hard to cut the meals down to 2 servings? I only ask because my husband doesn’t eat most of the things I do and I’d like to be able to do this for myself, but I don’t want DAYS of leftovers. 🙂

I love this idea and have been thinking about it since you posted it a few months back. Cooking Smart has great ideas, good meals with varied options if you are vegetarian etc., and a plan that is not too expensive. I liked a few of their menu plans, but I’ll choose; the Panko Crusted Fish Tacos. Your idea may be the inspiration to get me started – thank you.

I have already made one week of the free meals from CookSmarts, but I am really excited to try the panko crusted fish tacos! The red cabbage slaw looks fantastic! This service is wonderful and is such a help for busy weeks. I think I will be buying a year’s worth of recipes soon, it is so worth it.

I’ve been tempted to sign up but haven’t bit the bullet yet. I love the idea of someone telling me what to make, but I worry that I’ll be too lazy/tired to make meals. The Slow Cook Asian Style Short Ribs look fantastic! I’ve been wanting to try something like that but ribs seem intimidating.

How great that Mazen is a little foodie! I keep waiting for the chicken nugget/french toast stick phase to begin, but so far we’ve still been lucky. Lucy will eat ANYTHING. We’ve been thinking about putting her back in daycare part time, and I’ve been worried about the cafeteria style food they’ll be feeding her. Right now she’s been enjoying things like butternut squash mac & cheese and Lebanese food at the sitter’s. I love that she’s adventurous in eating like me. 🙂

My son wont eat pizza, pasta, chicken, etc at all. He loves veggies and beans and whatever I am eating. I think a lot of kids like real foods if they are exposed to it.

It also just depends on their preference and I have noticed, it changes every month. My son is 18 months and I don’t think we have reached the peak of finickiness yet. I will just keep offering a healthy balanced meal and its up to him to figure out the rest. 🙂

The best AND worst thing about cooking is that there’s always so much more to learn! My mother-in-law told me just the other day that she never really uses herbs or spices in her cooking (except for loads of salt) because she “never learned what’s supposed to go with what.” Experiment! Have fun!

Oh man these look good! I think I would most like to try the “Butternut Squash Curry”. We are in a total rut for meals, and glad to hear Mazen likes them. I have two boys, and I really need to start trying to figure out better meals that they like too! Thanks for sharing!

I just signed up for the Cook Smarts free trial and I think I’ll try it out next week. I always meal prep and plan but this looks like it might be something I could try on a week when I don’t feel like looking through cookbooks and online for ideas. I’m most excited about trying the turkey apple fennel burgers!

My subscription just expired, but I have a free account now. I’d say I’m most looking forward to the mac and cheese or the fish tacos. Yum! The Sunday food prep was something I didn’t fully take advantage of before, but after reading your take I’m considering renewing my subscription. I recently started taking night classes (and work full time) so Cook Smarts seems like an easy and fun way to still eat delicious, healthy food without having to plan too much myself. I’m all about making things easier and more convenient these days!

Forgive me for being dense, but I’m still trying to wrap my head around what makes this different than selecting a few recipes out of a magazine or off of a website. Are the biggest differences/advantages that it is giving you a meal plan that uses similar components/ingredients between meals to save time (i.e. the rotisserie chicken in two dishes & pesto in two dishes), that it gives you a list of tasks for weekend prep and that it creates a grocery list from the recipes? Just trying to better understand because while I can see where this would be a huge upgrade I’m trying to compare it to, say a yearly subscription to cooking light or eating well. Thanks.

Ack, my comment was missing a few words and doesn’t make sense. I was saying I could see where this would be a huge upgrade from winging it but was trying to compare it to a yearly subscription to a food magazine.

Yes – it’s the ingredient stretching and prep directions and pre-printed grocery list all with 4 amazing recipes. You absolutely can do this yourself if you have the time, but so many of us don’t (or won’t) meal plan so it’s so nice to have it all spelled out.

Kath, I got turned onto CookSmarts from your blog and it has changed our home cookin’ life! The meals and planning are amazing. We loved the rotisserie chicken melts from that week’s menu and will definitely make them again.

Cook Smarts looks like a great website. I was curious if your grocery bill has gone up significantly since you have used the site versus what you would normally spend. Just thinking since you are buying specific ingredients for each meal. I would love to try it, though, because it gives you such different meals and basically there is no thought needed. 🙂 Thank you for the discount code. I’m still deciding.

It has gone up a little bit because I’m buying portions for 4 people instead of 2 but I’ve had so many leftovers that it’s been worth it. And when a recipe calls for an expensive ingredient (like fish) I just get servings for 2 and adjust the recipe.

Sunday prep day is such a great idea! I’ve been thinking about doing it for years, but have never actually done it. I started graduate school this week, so saving time during the week is a must now. Thanks for the inspiration!

LOVE this service. As a graduate student, it feels impossible to look for new recipes and meal plan, and I know that Cook Smarts would just make everything so much easier – I just signed up and am so excited to get started! The thing I’m most looking forward to making is the spinach artichoke pesto pasta! 🙂

Great post! How college friendly do you think Cook Smarts would be? I live in an apartment and have a little kitchen, so would it be realistic for me to go for it? My roommates and I love to cook – we just need something for a college budget! Thanks!

If they make this service available in such a way that it can create meals for a couple or one person (#singlegirlprobs) i’d so be down to try it 🙂 Love the meal inspiration, that pasta with artichoke pesto sounds so delish!

Something I love about Cooksmart is that you can customize the recipes to your specific dietary needs. My family is trying a Paleo diet and I was able to customize my free trial meal plans to fit that need. I can’t wait to try the Sesame Teriyaki Salmon!

I think it’s great Mazen will eat so many foods but I don’t really think of it as adult foods. Babies of all cultures eat indian/chinese/etc foods without issue. Mac & cheese as kid food is purely an American thing that is unnecessary!

I signed up for a Cooking Smart subscription. I have been wanting to give them a shot, so saving some $$ pushed me over the edge. I’m looking forward to the Chicken with Honey, Lemon and Butter. I love parsnips so this will be great! Thank you for the discount code. 🙂

One questions – do you print everything ahead of time, each week for your Cooking Smart prep, shopping list and recipes? That has been my one hesitation is that there does not seem to be an easy way to use some of this on my phone or tablet, maybe I’m missing something.

The drawback to this for me would be prepping all your week’s veg at once. I find vegetables either dry out, turn brown or go slimy when cut ahead.

I have 2 kids and go to work from 7:30am until they get off school, and I definitely like to make meals that we can have for 2 nights with one prep, but I don’t think prepping as much veg as our family of 4 eats is so time consuming that it needs to be done so far in advance.

A service like this looks like it would help with inspiring you to try new things but it’s pretty expensive.

I got a one-month subscription and am LOVING it as well! Some other features that I like are easily being able to customize certain meals to fit a diet (we like to eat less meat, so we opt for vegetarian one or two nights). There’s also a facebook page where you can post pics of you meals, ask questions, etc. I’m hoping to convince my husband to get a whole year’s subscription. It has made cooking with a toddler in the house soooo much easier!

Mmmmmmm pesto pasta!! I make pizza and sandwiches with pesto but never pasta =) Will try!
I signed up & can’t wait to try their BUTTERNUT SQUASH CURRY recipe. It has 3 of my favorite things: butternut squash, kale, & chickpeas! YUM!

This service is a great idea! I already sit down and plan my meals out for the week (complete with a spreadsheet to keep track of the recipes— I am a natural-born planner), but this would be great for crazy weeks when I run short on time.

I was actually going to sign up for a subscription but I think you can’t swap out the recipes for something else? My husband is a little weird about certain foods (like fish) so I would need to customize.

I think cook smarts is a good idea and I might give it a try to help shake things up in the kitchen. I like the idea of a Sunday prep too because I recently went back to work and have a 15 month old so cooking time is reduced! I signed up for the free trial and am excited to make the apple fennel turkey burgers!

Sounds amazing! Just what I need…inspiration and help with organizing. I”m the worst with just picking junk from the fridge and never planning ): Whole Foods is my guilty indulgence so a card would be to die for!

I loved the idea of Cook Smarts the first time you blogged about it, so I signed up on the email list and browsed around.

To be frank, the condescending tone on her emails really turned me off and I never ended up buying any of the meal plans. I consider myself a skilled cook, but I get tired of the task of meal planning and making grocery lists (or I end up too busy). I still think the product itself is great, if only she would temper her tone or tailor emails to a user’s skill level.

Excited for this free trial, thanks Kath! I’m most eager to try the broiled cod with sauteed cauliflower and chard with raisins. Living on the coast of Maine, I have easy access to fresh seafood and am always looking for new ways to prepare my favorite source of protein.

That pasta with artichoke-spinach pesto looks amazing! From the site the panko crusted fish tacos look great as well. fish tacos are one of my favorite things to order when out, would love to have them at home!

The whole “kids menu” should never have happened. Kids eat what you start them on! You’re starting Mazen on real food, so that’s what he likes! Who would take plain chickpeas over chickpeas that are all dolled up? My SIL feeds my nephews so well, and they love their broccoli, which is even more proof it’s so important to start kids right away on the right foods! My extended family visited them this summer and were shocked that they were fighting over broccoli and zucchini. My thought was “of course, those veggies are delicious when they’re roasted in coconut oil and spices!” I wish “kid food” was abolished! 🙂

I’m positive you don’t have kids. Children don’t continue “eat what you start them on.” If that was the case, every elementary school student in my neighborhood would love fresh, steamed veggies and all sorts of interesting, fresh, healthy foods. There is a point where MOST children (regardless of how well they are fed as toddlers) start to reject flavorful foods. Most of the kids I know prefer the bland stuff (plain bread, pasta, cheese, etc) to anything else, despite parents like myself constantly offering a healthy and colorful variety of foods. To say “they eat what you start them on” is insulting to the majority of parents who, YES, started their toddlers on the good stuff. Any person who has elementary school aged children will tell you this.

Hear, hear. The whole “judge parents by what their kids will or will not eat” should never have happened. Trust me, when you have dealt with a two year old on a three day hunger strike, the theory that it is all so easy, and just offer them what YOU want them to eat and they will eat it, goes right out the window, FAST.

Agree, Beth. Kids go through various phases with food and eating, all completely normal. Early exposure to a variety of foods, flavors, textures is important, because it makes those foods familiar, especially later – but it doesn’t guarantee a childhood free of fussiness. My son loved curry until about the age of 3, then suddenly wouldn’t touch it at all. He went through a definite phase of wanting very bland, simple foods – fruit was loved, veggies not so much. You do the best you can to keep things as healthful as possible, but sometimes you do have to make concessions to their palate (don’t we all?). Some kids will eat broccoli and refuse all other veggies, some will eat veggies and avoid fruit, some will refuse almost anything but a piece of bread or cheese. It works out…you just keep on exposing them to a variety of foods, and they tend to come around after a year or two.

That’s not to say you have to feed them junk, but mac and cheese or chicken nuggets (baked, not fried), made from scratch from real ingredients don’t have to be the devil’s diet! In our house, the rule was not being allowed to say he didn’t like something, or say no to it, without having tasted it. As he’s grown, he’s come to love many of those old “yuck” foods, but I think a big part of that was exposure without judgment (instead, encouragement to try new things and praise for doing so). It all sorts out, but don’t worry if a time comes where your kids refuse a lot of familiar foods as it is completely normal.

Everything thai/asian or indian. Happy to see they propose these. But for someone who don’t really eat meat, the recipes are very meat oriented… So I don’t know. They should propose a weekly vegetarian option maybe ?

I already do all of my prep (and cooking) for all three meals for at least five days every Sunday… But I’d love the chance to splurge at WFM for some new ingredients. And short ribs are my absolute favorite food!

I have heard about Blue Apron and have a friend who has done it, but I don’t know it’s a cost effective long term solution. Plus I like picking out my own ingredients. But it is really cool for those who want all of that done for the.

I signed up to get the recipes from Blue Apron and buy my own ingredients. I’ve made quite a few of the vegetarian recipes and the meals are designed for two people, which is great for us as I often make too much and they eat too much as well. I’m still thinking of signing up for Cook Smarts though as I like the idea of prepping things beforehand and having ingredients that are used from meal to meal.

Yahoo – just purchased by Cook Smarts subscription! I was going back and forth, but after reading your review I knew I just had to do it. So excited for this culinary journey! I looked back at last week’s recipe of roasted butternut squash chili and knew what we were having for dinner tonight! 🙂

Absolutely everything looks delicious and easy, but I’m most excited for one of the simplest recipes – chicken pot pie! Comfort food at its best. Haven’t had chicken pot pie since I lived under my mother’s roof, and this will bring back some great memories. Thanks for the subscription discount!

I love fish tacos so the panko crusted fish tacos so will be my first recipe to try. They look amazing! 3 meal plans for free is incredibly generous! Cook Smarts is going to be just the thing to get me back in the kitchen. Thanks Jess!

I LOVE making chicken pot pie for my family….so trying a different version would be great. I typically bake up the chicken and do a pot pie and a chicken & wild rice soup. that gives me several meals with little clean up. I would also love to try any of the seafood dishes they have posted!!

Sounds interesting! I’m impressed with the price point, too. Do they come up with their own recipes? Is there any way to add your own recipes and still have those ingredients show up on the shopping list?

I signed up for the free account last night and I am going to go ahead and purchase the year of plans. I saw a number of recipes that I would enjoy and I love that I can customize them to be gluten free or paleo since I can’t handle dairy or gluten. The Adobo Shrimp with Cilantro and Lime rice looks great and so does the Teriyaki Salmon.

Thanks for sharing! I just recently went to a crockpot meal workshop and made 12 meals to freeze and have ready, and while it was alot of work up front it’s nice to have healthy meals ready to go on weeknights! I will have to look into this new option!

As the mother of a very picky eater, I’m looking for any suggestions at how to get my kid to eat more variety when it comes to food. I guess I need to start giving her things that aren’t so bland too, maybe that’s been our problem. Thanks for the idea, Kath!

I just signed up for a free account, and I just might have to take the plunge and buy a year since that’s such a good deal!!
I think that the meal I’d most like to try from your post is that Chicken Pot Pie- I have horrible memories of only getting frozen ones growing up and I want a REAL pot pie, gosh dangit!! haha 🙂 but I would definitely request that Matt send some homemade crust my way, maybe with the addition of some rosemary…mmmm 😉

So many of the fish recipes look great– something I don’t usually cook but that Cook Smarts makes much more accessible! I signed up for a free trial and can’t wait to make the Maple Dijon Panko Crusted Salmon With Clementine, Apple, and Pecan Salad!

Hi Kath! Thanks for the discount code! Was debating about whether or not to sign up and I took this as my little sign to go ahead and do it! I would love to make the mac n cheese with green beans. I think my four year old daughter will love it!

Does Cook Smarts have an option to automatically convert a recipe to accommodate other serving sizes? Like for a family of 6? I know I could do the math, but an option like that would be so convenient!! Also, when you make the dressings for the salads, is the amount just for that dinner or are there leftovers? Just curious…..

I saw that there was a vegetarian option for each day & I think that is great! Do you know if there is a vegan option ever? I’m not sure how well some of the recipes would work if we just simply omitted the dairy products from the vegetarian options …

Thanks for any insight! This service looks great & is such a great price!! (Especially with that coupon code! Hello $1/week!)

Thanks for your comment! At the moment, we don’t have a vegan option but we also don’t feature dairy (e.g., butter, cheeses, egg) very frequently as ‘integral’ parts of a meal. There is the occasional pizza or egg breakfast for dinner, but we do see a lot of great vegan substitutes for these items these days. If you’d prefer not to do that, you can always go back into our Archives too and search for a vegan alternative.

Our suggestion is to sign up for a free account and see if adapting our vegetarian dishes works for you.

Please let us know if you have any additional questions. We’re happy to help!

Just have to say – thanks for the coupon code to Cook Smarts! I’d seen your first post about them, then this one and had to try it out (especially with a new baby in the house, the days of wistfully pinning recipes and playing around in the kitchen at night are no more!). We loved the free trial week and think that $50 is an incredible deal for a whole year. 🙂

Hi! Sorry you had trouble with customer service. We are a small team but do try to get back to everyone! Perhaps something went wrong as Kath mentioned. Send me an email (carly at cooksmarts (dot) com) and I will direct you in the right place!